


these golden years

by orphan_account



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, M/M, a short n sweet birthday gift dedicated to my favorite ed sheeran fanboy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-11-22 19:28:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20879462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: a weak immune system and a half hour bus ride home later, chan accidentally eavesdrops on a conversation that he probably wasn’t supposed to overhear about





	these golden years

If anybody were to ask Chan what his favorite part of high school was, he’d say only two words: Kim Woojin.

It’s not meant to be a joke (albeit maybe a little) or meant to be cheesy (albeit maybe a lot) -- it’s just the plain and honest truth.

And truthfully, meeting Woojin is the only reason why Chan believes that everything happens for a reason.

Chan entered his 1st year of high school, fresh-faced and hopeful and brimming with youthful anticipation for new beginnings. Not knowing what clubs or activities he necessarily liked, he threw himself into every extracurricular he could possibly do and rationalized that he would stick with whichever one he’d like best at the end. Signing up for anything from the baking club to mixed martial arts to debate, Chan flitted and flirted with different topics of interest as he befriended all of his peers.

One club that he had signed up for on a whim was the robotics club.

Running into the clubroom rather late because he couldn’t figure out if B102 meant “Building B Room 102” or “Basement Room 102” which were on opposite sides of the campus, he barreled unceremoniously right through the doorway and flusteredly greeted his club members who had already commenced their meeting for the week. He hastily sat down at the first empty chair he saw on the opposite side of the classroom with only one other person sitting there to the right of him.

“So, what did I miss?” Chan whispered to his seat neighbor. Either his fellow clubmate was very engrossed in whatever announcements the vice president was droning on about or he didn’t hear him, so Chan whispered again: “Did they already take attendance for today?”

The boy -- with his wavy dark brown hair, contemplative and glittering eyes, high cheekbones, and strong jawline -- simply just tilted his head in a quiet manner and seemed to spare no attention to Chan’s questions.

Feeling a mixture of discouragement and unshakable determination, Chan finally tapped the boy on the shoulder and repeated again a bit louder this time, “Hey, don’t mean to bother you, but did they take attendance already?”

At the barest touch on his shirt sleeve, the boy whipped his head around at Chan with an expression that was full of sudden shock and surprise. Instantly regretting the confused look that spread across the boy’s face, Chan hurriedly moved to sound out an apology when he said, “I’m sorry, I can't hear very well from this side"--the boy motioned to his left ear for emphasis--"Did you want to ask me something?”

Chan opened and closed his mouth, unsure as to what to say next. Finally settling on giving the boy a gentle smile, he said, “It’s no problem. Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to know if I missed anything and if they took attendance yet.”

The boy shook his head. “Oh, no. You didn’t miss anything at all. They only finished introducing all of the senior club members and started talking about what robotics was generally about by the time you came in, I think. They’ll probably give us the sign-in sheet towards the end of the club hour to make sure that we don’t just sign-in and leave at the beginning without doing any of the actual activities, but receiving the credit anyways.”

“Ah,” Chan’s eyes widened. “I see. I didn’t realize that people would be so sneaky.”

The boy let out a small laugh, one that sent goosebumps down Chan’s arms. “Anything to get the upper-hand with college applications, I suppose.”

They fell silent for the rest of the orientation meeting, shooting quick glances at one another whenever something particularly funny was said or some strange quip was made.

Once everyone got up to leave as the meeting was adjourned, Chan shrugged on his backpack straps onto his shoulders as the other boy was storing away his notebooks in his own bag. As the two of them walked out of the classroom together and were about to part ways at the school gate, Chan stuck his hand out towards the boy with a cock of his head and a self-assured grin.

“I’m Bang Chan, by the way. 1st year.”

Chan’s outstretched hand was met with a warm and firm grip. “I’m Kim Woojin. Also a 1st year.”

Both boys smiled widely at each other.

After that, the rest is history.

Their interests and hobbies naturally branched out and grew as the months and years passed, with the both of them eventually dropping out of the robotics club after a semester of pulling endless all-nighters building and repairing and programming. While Woojin found that he was more interested in photography, Chan found his interests leaning towards athletics instead. Although they were no longer dominating their local district’s engineering competitions, that didn’t mean that they stopped being friends -- not in the slightest.

If anything, their brief time together in the robotics club was the catalyst to their now 3-year long friendship and counting.

In fact, the day after their initial encounter, they happened to bump into each other in line as they waited to purchase their meals at the cafeteria. Deciding to spend their hour lunch break laying under the inviting shade of one of the giant oak trees lining up alongside the perimeter of the campus lawn, they continued to do so for the following six semesters from that point forward. And when the snow or typhoon seasons came, they could be found lounging around at the bottom of the stairwell between the gym and the science hall with a portable video game console or a stack of comic books in-hand.

Along with their shared lunch period, they would oftentimes be shuffled into the same classes over the years due to being placed in advanced courses for many of their subjects. From literature to calculus to world history to economics -- they never failed to join forces for at least one group project per semester and would choose to be deskmates when given the chance if their teachers weren’t already enforcing the cursed alphabetical-order seating.

Even on weekends, Chan and Woojin would regularly hang out together. Whether they were lazing in Woojin’s house watching bad reality television shows or racing each other outside at the neighborhood park in front of Chan’s apartment playing various sports games, their schedules effortlessly and seamlessly blended together as if time was a malleable thing only for them.

Their high school life is now well into the final stretches of 3rd year, with only three more months left till graduation and the approaching mid-semester exams to take. It feels quite odd for Chan to imagine some vague future college-version of himself roaming around an unfamiliar campus and spending his blissfully peaceful days without Woojin being by his side as often as he was now, seeing that the both of them had gotten into and chosen two different universities on the opposite ends of Seoul.

Whenever Chan fills his brain up with too much of those sentimental and melancholy thoughts, Woojin always happens to be right there in front of him. Whenever he gives him that concerned yet warm and open expression of his, it sends all of Chan’s worries flying away as he returns Woojin's look with a wistful smile of his own.

High school would have never truly been the same without Woojin.

***

It all starts with a headache.

It’s small and manageable at the beginning -- nothing out of the ordinary or something that Chan hasn’t dealt with before from the aftereffects of taking too-long of a nap during the middle of the day or accidentally knocking his head a little bit too hard against a stray pole or an unseen piece of furniture. It’s so small that Chan goes about running up and down the soccer field and continuing on with his weekend Saturday practice as per usual.

However, as the hour passes, the headache starts to progress into something much more prominent and apparent as a throbbing pain causes his forehead to prick and heat up uncomfortably. His limbs are also tensing and aching in a way that isn’t from the usual exertion of physical exercise, and his throat is strangely sore.

Feeling more winded than usual, Chan halts his dribbling drill around the cones not even halfway through and braces his hands on his knees as he tries to catch his shaky breath.

His coach takes notice of his change in demeanor first, calling out to him from the sidelines as he quickly jogs up to his bent figure and says, “Bang, are you feeling okay?”

Chan tries his best to suppress the persistent fatigue with a smile. “Could be better. I think I can keep going, Coach Kim.”

Coach Kim frowns. “We haven’t even started the shooting drills yet, but you look like you’re about to pass out. Why don’t you head home early today. The pale look on your face tells me that just taking a break on the bleachers for ten minutes isn’t going to cut it.”

“But the game on Friday--”

“Nuh-uh,” Coach Kim tuts with a shake of his head. “No buts. Your teammates will do just fine without their captain here for one practice. Besides, what use is their captain if he’s looking like a shriveled up radish with two legs.”

Chan laughs weakly. “That bad, huh?”

His coach gives him a sympathetic look now as he pats him on the shoulder warmly. “Just take good care of yourself and get home safe, Bang. We’ll see you at practice in two days.”

***

Changing in the locker room proves to be quite the obstacle when your mind is failing and your body is not in any better shape.

He gingerly slips on an oversized hoodie and loose sweatpants over his practice clothes, and is careful as to not make any vigorous movements to make himself more nauseous than how he already feels. He lets out a sigh of relief after switching out his contacts for a pair of glasses that he normally reserves for at-home use only, pushing up the thick tortoise shell frames up his nose to keep it from slipping. Covering up his nose and mouth with a face mask for good measure, he shoves his mass of curly black hair under a knit beanie and slowly makes the four-block trek to the nearest bus stop.

Chan is still feeling a bit woozy by the time he boards his bus when it pulls up to the curb a mere ten minutes later. Stumbling all the way to the back and heavily plopping down on one of the hard plastic seats, he leans his head against the window and closes his eyes in hopes to catch some sliver of sleep during his half-hour ride home.

As the bus rumbles on, Chan finds himself slipping deeper and deeper into sleep until a pair of girls choose to sit directly in front of him with their backs turned. They’re laughing loudly about one thing or another and it mildly annoys him at first, only that their sudden presence woke him from his foggy state, but he shifts in his seat and finds comfort in their pleasant voices as they converse with each other in a carefree manner. They’re chattering on about mundane, everyday life things: the unusually warm and windy weather in March, the blockbuster foreign film that has been all the rage since its release in theaters, the latest celebrity scandal involving some sort of drug trafficking and company embezzlement.

Chan is halfway towards dozing off again when one of the girls says: “Hey, Lia. Don’t you think that Chan and Woojin are the cutest, though?”

Chan’s ears perk at the sudden mention of his and Woojin’s name. Curious as to why they were even mentioned at all, he blearily blinks open his eyes before the girl evidently named Lia says, “Yeah, I see them all of the time in the hallways after lunch period. I’m so jealous of them.”

The other girl groans. “Ugh, same. I wish I had a boyfriend like that. Then I wouldn’t end up in these dumb relationships with these dumb immature guys who have no respect or time for me.”

“I think we all wish that we had a boyfriend like them, Chaeyoung.” Lia laughs. “They’re so lucky that they have each other. They’re honestly the cutest couple in 3rd year.”

If Chan wasn’t awake before, he’s fully alert now. He sits up a tad straighter in his seat when Chaeyoung says, “I know right! I heard that they always teamed up together when they used to be in robotics club and always won first place in their competitions. They were only in it for one semester, I think.”

“I heard that one time when some asshole made fun of Woojin for being deaf during 2nd year, Chan went up to him and told him to stop. And when the guy kept saying really mean stuff about him, Chan apparently told him that it would be unfortunate if their teacher knew that that guy had been plagiarizing his essays for the past semester in that class. I’m pretty sure that jerk left Woojin alone after that, and he eventually got caught anyways because he was stupid enough to not even change the name of the person he had copied off from for one of the assignments.”

“Wow, I never even knew that. What an asshole.”

“Yeah, right?”

“And then didn’t Woojin buy him these limited edition pair of sneakers from one of Chan’s favorite cartoon series for his birthday last year? Everybody at school kept asking him how he managed to get them because it sold out online in less than an hour, but he just laughed. We all just figured that Woojin got the shoes for him because he asked one of my friends how fast the internet was at PC bangs the day before the release.”

Lia sighs. “Honestly, who’s doing it like them? They work so well together and they've always got each other's back. It must be nice to have a relationship like that.”

“We can all only dream to get on their level,” Chaeyoung says before she loudly gasps. “Oh, shit! We totally just missed our stop. We gotta get off now.”

Both Chaeyoung and Lia swiftly gather up their belongings and rush out through the back door of the bus, not ever once looking back and taking notice that the very same person they had just previously been speaking about has been sitting right behind them listening in on their conversation all along.

He’s not really sure what to think of it or how to process everything that he’s overheard during that brief moment in time as he remains seated in his spot for another ten minutes or so. He’s not really sure what to think of it even after he eats an early dinner with his family at the dining table, brushes his teeth, and lays in bed tucked under his covers as he stares up intently at the ceiling while listening to the distant wails of a car alarm being set off.

***

The short day's worth of rest really does help Chan and by the next morning, he wakes up feeling refreshed and energized and back to his normal self.

Unsure as to whether he had caught a cold that quickly came as it had went or ate something wrong that caused his body to completely malfunction, he takes his blessings while he can and chugs two cups of water immediately upon waking.

He doesn’t think much in regards to what was being shared about him on the bus the previous day, quite frankly because he soon forgets about it the moment as he steps into his psychology course and is bombarded with a surprise quiz the first thing in the morning that throws the entire class into an uproar.

It’s not until Saturday rolls around again that Chan finally remembers.

He’s out at the park kicking a soccer ball back and forth with Woojin. They’re out here bright and early before the usual weekend crowd of families and other young teenagers swarm the area. It seems that even on days that his coach doesn’t hold practice, he can’t help but gravitate towards playing. _Must be my dad’s crazy fanatic sports genes in me_, Chan thinks to himself as he snorts out a laugh.

Woojin isn’t much of an athlete, though he keeps up the pace with Chan rather well whenever they’re outside on the field for hours. Chan is aware that his best friend’s knowledge of soccer doesn’t extend much past meeting the ball with your foot and kicking the ball towards a net or another person, so he restrains from kicking with all of his strength. Plus, the less energy he expends all at once the more time he gets to teach Woojin easy soccer tricks that has Chan whooping and hollering with excitement and Woojin smiling that brilliant shining smile of his whenever he successfully executes a move.

They’re casually passing the ball to each other, when Chan accidentally aims it a bit too far from the tip of Woojin’s shoe and sends it flying towards the bleachers. Woojin collapses into a fit of howling laughter as Chan sheepishly jogs over to the far side of the field to retrieve it.

Woojin is still laughing himself silly when Chan comes back with the ball in hand.

“Sorry, it was just too funny,” Woojin says as he wipes a stray tear from his cheek with a finger. “The horrified look on your face when you thought that you almost hit that new statue the city put up is absolutely priceless.”

“Haha, thanks.” Chan rolls his eyes in fake annoyance. “I’ll keep you in mind when I’m charged ₩2,000,000 for vandalizing public property.”

“Sure, sure. You still owe me the jazz cd you lost last month, by the way, so it all cancels out.”

“I promise, I’m getting you a replacement copy! I swear!”

Woojin starts laughing again, although this time sounding more soft and sweet. “I’m kidding. It’s fine, Chan. Just treat me to an all-you-can-eat kalbi dinner and you’ve got yourself a deal.”

As Chan shakes his head in amusement and mutters under his breath about how his allowance is constantly running dry because of him, Woojin’s expression fades into that of concern when he says, “Hey, were you okay last Saturday though? Hyunggu texted me after practice that you left early because you were sick. Did you get food poisoning or something?”

“Huh? Oh, no I’m fine. I had a weird cold, but it pretty much went away by the next day.”

Woojin nods. “That’s good. I figured it was from all of the expired snacks you keep eating even though I keep telling you to just throw them away.”

“Ah, I’m sure it wasn’t that,” Chan says as he rubs the back of his neck. He fidgets in his spot for a moment, rotating the ball anxiously in his hands before speaking again. “About last weekend, though. I overheard something when I was going home on the bus.”

“Hmm? What was it?”

“It - Uh, it was us. It was about us.”

Woojin shoots him a puzzled look. “Did we win something? I don’t remember entering in any school contests recently.”

“No, no it’s not that! Some girls -- They were talking about us. You know.” Chan feels his face flush bright red as he rambles on. “They talked about us always teaming up and working well together and how the whole school thinks we’re together? Like _together_ together? I really like hanging out with you, though, and you’re the only person I can really trust that supports me in everything that I do and - and the weird thing is, I don’t think it’s weird at all.”

He stops mid-thought as he abruptly lifts his head and blurts out, “Not that I think anything is weird about this -- about us -- and not that I think liking other guys is weird or--”

Woojin just graces him with that fond smile of his, the early morning sunlight casting a soft glow against his ruffled hair and his eyes crinkling up in dainty crescent moons as he says, “I get it. I know.”

Chan feels his heart leap out of his chest and all of the air leak out of his lungs. “You do?”

A shrug. “We make an awesome team, don’t you think?” Woojin grins a little wider now. “And I’ve always secretly thought you were the most handsome guy in our grade. Being stuck together with a Greek god as a boyfriend is kind of a hard deal to beat.”

Chan tips his head back and barks out a laugh. “No, I think I’m the one who drew the lucky straw out of this one getting to date the cutest boy in the universe.”

A cool breeze suddenly blows through the field and rustles the grass beneath their feet as they gaze at each other with starry wondrous eyes.

Woojin tilts his head in the most endearing of ways as he moves in closer towards Chan and whispers to him in a conspiring tone, just loud enough to be heard above the rushing wind: “Wanna hear another secret? I’ve always thought that you were the best thing that’s happened to me over the past three years.”

Chan, overflowing with newfound tender emotion, can almost feel his heart explode inside his chest again. "You wanna hear mine?”

He carefully grabs ahold of Woojin's hand and leans in to press a gentle kiss against his right ear. “I think you’re the best part of me too.”

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is completely inspired by an actual conversation i overheard on the bus two years ago, so shout outs to those random strangers for giving me this idea. happy birthday chan!!
> 
> and thank you for reading this short lil piece! i apologize in advance for any inaccuracies about soccer bc i, for one, am like kim woojin and have no idea what goes on about sports like ever


End file.
